Rand Paul: GOP must get ‘beyond deportation’

Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday argued the Republican Party needs to get “beyond deportation” in order to break through to Hispanic voters.

The Kentucky Republican and likely 2016 contender argued that before the GOP can make its case to the Latino community, which voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in 2012, the party needs to make clear it is open to a more welcoming approach to immigration.

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“The bottom line is, the Hispanic community, the Latino community is not going to hear us until we get beyond that issue,” he said at a conservative event. His comments came immediately following a discussion on work visas, in the context of a broader address about reaching out to that community.

“They’re not going to care whether we go to the same church, or have the same values, or believe in the same kind of future of our country until we get beyond that. Showing up helps, but you got to show up and you got to say something, and it has to be different from what we’ve been saying.”

That differs from the political path promoted by some of Paul’s fellow conservatives, who argue that if the GOP highlights other areas of common ground with the Hispanic community beyond immigration — shared religious and entrepreneurial values, for example — that would be sufficient to make inroads with Hispanics.

“I think that what’s happened is, there is not the perception of empathy coming from the Republican Party that we care about where they’re coming from and we care about what their problems are,” he said of minorities at a conservative gathering at the Newseum. “Until we get to that point, they’re not going to listen to any of the next message. Are there many in the Latino community who go to church, believe in tradition values, are conservative? Yes. Maybe half, maybe 60 percent … there’s enormous upside potential … but you got to get the door ajar.”

One way to open that “door” to the Hispanic community, he said, is to offer reassurances that “Mrs. Garcia’s nephew is not going to be sent home to Mexico.”

While Paul opposed the comprehensive immigration reform package in the Senate last year, he has signaled that he supports other approaches to reform. His comments, which came at an event held by the conservative groups the American Principles Project and the Media Research Center, are part of the senator’s broader effort to expand the GOP base.

It’s a message he has taken across the country: from Texas, where he warned that the deep red Lone Star State could turn blue if the party doesn’t pursue a more inclusive approach; to Detroit, where he reached out to African Americans; to Berkeley, Calif., where he pitched young people on his libertarian-leaning brand of conservatism.

“The other thing to acknowledge is, it’s not always the individual’s fault,” he said of undocumented immigrants. “Sometimes it’s a child who has no control over this. But sometimes it’s also someone who came here and tried to use our system. We as conservatives talk a lot about big government and how big government never seems to work. We’re always talking about Obamacare now, how big government is a disaster. … Well, guess what? Big government’s not very good with the visa system, either.”

He added, “Part of the problem is big government. So as conservatives, when we are blasting big government not working, we need to understand that the visa system’s a part of big government.”

Noting that the Republicans have messages that should resonate with the Hispanic community on subjects like education and the economy, he said, “We gotta get beyond deportation to get to the rest of the issues.”

His remarks came during the public launch of a new Media Research Center watchdog initiative, designed to ensure that Spanish-language media is unbiased. Paul was asked several times in a subsequent question-and-answer session about liberal bias. While he charged that he feels that, more broadly speaking he is treated less fairly in print than on television, he was quick to pivot back to his message that conservatives need to make an effort to appear in Spanish-language outlets and beyond.

“It hasn’t been us being excluded,” he said. “It really is showing up … I need to brush up on my Spanish.”